Question External Drive Question (WD Elements)

[Wolkie 72]

A while back I bought this external hd, and my IT tech told me to "save all your music on your G drive".

I think everyone already knows about the WMP Codec Problem. It's when you go to play a playlist or a cut off a cd and it won't play because of a "Codec Error".

How do : a) make sure I have music on drive G on this thing and
b) can you buy Codexes and upload them so that WMP will work.

My specs:
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
AMD FX-8300 36 °C
Vishera 32nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 805MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. GA-78LMT-USB3 R2 (Socket M2) 42 °C
Graphics
E321VL (1600x900@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (MSI) 47 °C
Storage
111GB TOSHIBA MKNSSDEC120GB ATA Device (SATA (SSD)) 43 °C
1863GB MB2000EBUCF ATA Device (SATA ) 43 °C
1862GB Western Digital WD Elements 2621 USB Device (USB (SATA) (SSD)) 43 °C
Optical Drives
ATAPI iHAS324 F ATA Device
Audio

 

[USAFRet]

How do : a) make sure I have music on drive G on this thing

Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.
(upload your pic to imgur.com, post the link here)

"G drive" is sort of irrelevant.
That external might be given any drive letter.

Also...
Install and run either WinDirStat, or WizTree.

Run as Administrator, selecting only the drive in question.
Post a screencap here.

 

[Lafong]

I use WMP to play mp3s without issues and have done so for over 15 years.

I have never heard of a WMP codec problem. Whatever it is, I don't have it.

As far as you know, do you have ONLY a single copy of each song, and is that on drive G, the external?

"How do : a) make sure I have music on drive G on this thing"

What do you see if you look at the external in File Explorer? Nothing at all?

Are these files MP3? Were they ripped from CDs or what?

 

[Wolkie 72]

Lafong, Ripped from cd, all songs are supposedly on drive G, when I look at Drive G I see that it has 1862.79 GB NFTS and healthy. I have all the songs on cd - just hate to rip them all again.

USAF RET, I did go to WinDirStat (never could find the screenshot of my discmanager to send) to see about getting the codec(s) that Windows says I am missing because WDS doesn't support WIndows 10 version 22H2. I was so hoping that even if I had to buy the codec pak I could hear my playlist songs again. When I click on the error information it states "Windows cannot find the file you are trying to sync, rip or play. It may have been moved deleted, etc." - so that was no help at all. BTW: Ex- USAF myself. SAC, Minot -missiles.

 

[USAFRet]

Lafong, Ripped from cd, all songs are supposedly on drive G, when I look at Drive G I see that it has 1862.79 GB NFTS and healthy. I have all the songs on cd - just hate to rip them all again.

USAF RET, I did go to WinDirStat (never could find the screenshot of my discmanager to send) to see about getting the codec(s) that Windows says I am missing because WDS doesn't support WIndows 10 version 22H2. I was so hoping that even if I had to buy the codec pak I could hear my playlist songs again. When I click on the error information it states "Windows cannot find the file you are trying to sync, rip or play. It may have been moved deleted, etc." - so that was no help at all. BTW: Ex- USAF myself. SAC, Minot -missiles.

I wasn't considering WinDirStat for the codecs, but rather...."How do : a) make sure I have music on drive G on this thing"

 

[Wolkie 72]

I wasn't considering WinDirStat for the codecs, but rather...."How do : a) make sure I have music on drive G on this thing"

Yeah, sorry. My cognitive memory chips are for poop these days. I have that WMP problem with the codecs too. How does one play music off an external drive, or can that be done now that I have the codec problem. Apologies again for the misleading.

 

[USAFRet]

How does one play music off an external drive

VLC

 

[Wolkie 72]

Tried that one already. They have probs as well.

 

[USAFRet]

And how, exactly, did these files get from the CD to (hopefully) your hard drive?
What specific software did you use?

 

[Wolkie 72]

And how, exactly, did these files get from the CD to (hopefully) your hard drive?
What specific software did you use?

MY IT tech did it for me while he was working on something else. Just told me "all your music's on G drive. Don't mess with it". Why would it show the number of GB's if nothing's on there. That WD is a plug and play thing, I thought if I could keep it plugged into a USB port, it would back up files on its own?

 

[USAFRet]

MY IT tech did it for me while he was working on something else. Just told me "all your music's on G drive. Don't mess with it". Why would it show the number of GB's if nothing's on there. That WD is a plug and play thing, I thought if I could keep it plugged into a USB port, it would back up files on its own?

In what way is that WD Elements supposed to back up on its own?

A screencap of your Disk Management window might clear up a LOT of things.

 

[Lafong]

Lafong, Ripped from cd, all songs are supposedly on drive G, when I look at Drive G I see that it has 1862.79 GB NFTS and healthy. I have all the songs on cd - just hate to rip them all again.

Assuming drive G shows up in the right side of File Explorer and you have drilled down into it, I'd assume the songs are NOT on G.

Despite your "supposedly on drive G".

Despite what your tech may have said.

Possible explanations:

They were on G, but you accidentally deleted them or formatted G.

They are in a hidden folder of some type.

You haven't properly drilled into G to see what it in fact contains.

They are on G, but G or the USB connection to it is defective in some way.

Probably some other plausible explanations that don't come to me right now.

An empty drive will still show the number of GBs on it, even if empty.

Have you explained your situation to your tech?

 

[USAFRet]

A screencap is worth 1000 words.

 

[Lafong]

MY IT tech did it for me while he was working on something else. Just told me "all your music's on G drive. Don't mess with it".

That implies you ripped the songs from CD onto "some drive" and your tech then copied or moved them from "some drive" to G.

What is and where is "some drive", right now?

What does it contain, right now?

In your shoes, I'd hope my tech copied the songs to G rather than moved the songs. And that your original rips of the songs are still on "some drive". I'm guessing they are NOT, for whatever reason, and that your only versions of the songs are either on G or in original CD form.

 

[Wolkie 72]

trying to send you a screenshot of the disk management view, but cannot find where it landed after I took the shot. I can't just hit "paste" and have it show up here off the clipboard. Any help so I can show you the g drive. Doing the best I can here, guys. I'm a little old and a lot lacking in the IT department. As for the IT guy, I had to cut him loose due to a financial issue.

 

[USAFRet]

trying to send you a screenshot of the disk management view, but cannot find where it landed after I took the shot. I can't just hit "paste" and have it show up here off the clipboard. Any help so I can show you the g drive. Doing the best I can here, guys. I'm a little old and a lot lacking in the IT department. As for the IT guy, I had to cut him loose due to a financial issue.

Upload your pic to imgur.com, post the link here.

 

[Wolkie 72]

Cannot find the capture to upload it. Supposed to be on clipboard? Nothing there. That was my problem last night and is why I printed out what it says on drive G. I understand that even though it shows storage, that there might be nothing there, but how do I show you the WD external drive with a screenshot if I can't even find it to upload it to imgur - and I have used imgur before with Warcraft. Sorry, but I just can't find the capture.

 

[USAFRet]

Cannot find the capture to upload it. Supposed to be on clipboard? Nothing there. That was my problem last night and is why I printed out what it says on drive G. I understand that even though it shows storage, that there might be nothing there, but how do I show you the WD external drive with a screenshot if I can't even find it to upload it to imgur - and I have used imgur before with Warcraft. Sorry, but I just can't find the capture.

Start over, with a new screen capture.
You are capturing the WinDirStat window, correct?

 

[Wolkie 72]

Start over, with a new screen capture.
You are capturing the WinDirStat window, correct?

No,. You wrote earlier that a pic of the disc management section would explain a lot, so that is where I am trying the capture. If you want me to do the WinDirStat window, I will do that - just have to re-download it.


"A screencap of your Disk Management window might clear up a LOT of things."

Sorry - I'm REALLY not dense - just dumb at this stuff.

 

[USAFRet]

No,. You wrote earlier that a pic of the disc management section would explain a lot, so that is where I am trying the capture. If you want me to do the WinDirStat window, I will do that - just have to re-download it.


"A screencap of your Disk Management window might clear up a LOT of things."

Sorry - I'm REALLY not dense - just dumb at this stuff.

And also, from #2 above....WinDirStat.

But yes...start with the Disk Management window.
Both will help.

 

[PEnns]

Easiest way for screen shots:

• Use Snipping Tool (search for it in Windows), It's there and free
• Capture the screen / any part of screen with it
• Save screen shot to a place you remember (or create a new folder called ScreenShots)_
• Upload to imgur.com and post link here

 

[Wolkie 72]

https://imgur.com/a/dPoUmwZ

View: https://imgur.com/a/dPoUmwZ


Here is one

 

[Wolkie 72]

And WinDirStat

https://imgur.com/a/fjmsruI

View: https://imgur.com/a/fjmsruI

 

[fzabkar]

Can you see the G: drive in File Explorer? If so, drill down to your files and copy-and-paste one of your "codec-less" files to your C: drive. Then try to play this file from the C: drive.

 

[Wolkie 72]

Can you see the G: drive in File Explorer? If so, drill down to your files and copy-and-paste one of your "codec-less" files to your C: drive. Then try to play this file from the C: drive.

I was able to see the G drive in Explorer, I then found the album Abba Gold and tried to play it on C drive. What happened was the Windows Media Player Classic showed up, but nothing played from it. Same with C. WMP Classics came from K-Lites Mega Codec Pak.

Don't know how y'all feel about it, but I'm beginning to believe there's nothing on the G drive at all and I'm going to need to start over ripping all those cd's. Only thing is, what if the codec problem rears its ugly head again? Are we allowed to ask for remote help here (guess I just did)?